Developing Strategic and Collaborative Community–Academic Partnerships to Improve Community Health, From Moving Upstream to Getting at the Root

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Community partners have experienced inequity and lack of transparency in funding practices. Funding for community partners is a critical component of community-engaged research, as it influences community trust and opportunities. We compared contextual and site-specific factors at 2 centers (in New York City; Los Angeles and Orange Counties, CA) with different community-funding approaches, which influence institutional capacity to partner with and support community-based organizations. We describe community participatory and engaged research activities in two centers in a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities–funded national consortium, describing each center’s process for funding community-based organizations. We present lessons learned from ongoing collaborative efforts between community-based organizations, community action boards, and research institutions. We discuss successes and opportunities for growth in our efforts to support community-based organization partners, resources to help sustain their health equity programs, the importance of long-term institutional investment to sustain this type of support, and the potential for institutional-level changes that increase trustworthiness and sustainable outcomes. We advocate for systemic changes in institutional focus and resource investment to better respond to community needs. ( Am J Public Health. 2025;115(S2):S152–S163. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308092 )